The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-28

thlS talk only gave them the more satisfac-
ton IN thinking Of the torture in store for
me. On the same principle that people eat
their pie last, the Indians led Sewell out
first Ills condition was such that but little
fun could be anticipated from his torture.
He was large, fine-looking man, but the
result of his capture was to break him down.
He had no more courage than a child and it
was pltifIll to see him weep and hear his la
mentatlons. / begged of the Indians to let
him go, stating that he was a civilian who
had never injured them, and was so broken
down that he could not live long and but
for the hot-headed young men in the tribe |
should have got him off. They urged that
he was assisting to build the railroad which
was driving the game and the Indian out of
the country, and that the white men never
spared a warrior because he was ILL., Such
talk as this settled it, aud the engineer was
led out, stripped of his clothing. and tied Sc
curely to the stake. Had | refused TO look
on it would have been taken as an act of
cOwardice on my part. Realizing this,
stepped outside the lodge and stood within
ten feet Of the stake. Sewell wept and
begged while being made fast, but when
they stepped back he suddenly grew calm
and asked of me:
Taylor, what does this all means What
are they going to do with me!'
They are going to torture you, Mr.. Sc
WE'LL
Are you prisoner, too?"
Yes, and they will torture me after fin
ishing you"
My God! but this is awful have $500
at the camp. Won't they take that and re-
lease us?'
Irepled that if we were worth million
dollars apiece we could not purchase our
liberty under the circumstances, and ad-
vised him to Gallup his courage and seek to
die like man. Any sign of weakness on
his part would excite contempt and in
creased torture, and the better way was to
defy them TODD their worst. believe he tried
his best to brace up, but his nerves were
dreadfully shattered, and after three or four
minutes he began crying again. This had
inst the effect predicted Half hundred
boys were sent off to cut switches, and
when they returned they were told to go
ahead and apply them to the engineer. The
idea was to whip some courage into him,
but it was a fiat failure Almost at the
first blow the man cried out like woman,
and, his feet not having been tied, he danced
around like a puppet. / called out to him
to kick his tOrmentors, but he paid no heed
tony voice, and after time stood stock still
and let the boys whip him until blood was
drawn i'll a score of places. All this time
he cried like a boy or 5 years old, and
heard some of the old warriors say that he
was the most cowardly white man they had
ever met He may have lacked courage,
but l always believed his conduct to have
been the resut of his shattered mental and
physical condition.
After the boys had switched him for ten
minutes they were called off, and a couple
of warriors advanced with their muzzle-
loading rifles and began to fire charges of
powder into the poor fellows flesh. Does it
hurt? Well sir, hell can't be any worse.
I've had a dozen charges fired into me- and
| never felt any pain to equal it. I'll take
two bullets in preference to one charge of
powder every time. The first charge set
him to dancing and screaming, and at the
third or fourth he kicked one of the war
riorS over, and became so savage that they
had to fully bind him to the stake. They
fired thirty-fOur charges in all, and by the
time they had finished you could not have
told that Sewell was a white man. His
agony was something awful, and he writhed
about with such strength that the stake had
twice to be driven deeper. His shrieks and
screams, as l afterward knew, were heard
disJaS,e of more than two miles, and yet
this wa. only the beginning of what they
had in store for him.
The next move was to apply the burning
sticks. Some green sticks had been put
upon the fire on purpose, and three or four
warriors applied the burning ends to vari-
Gus portions of the engineers body. The
pain fairly drove him crazy, and in short
time he tainted Water was brought from
the stream and dashed over him, and during
the interval many warriors crowded around
me to see how | was bearing up.
Dogs! Do you think you can make The
Long Death cry like thatm | shouted at
them Here, pull up my trousers and see
yybara tbn pOwarIlV Stony shot DON1nr info
my legs Pull off my boots and find where
the Cheyennes applied the fire sticks Did
| weep like woman? Go ask them. And
when you ask that, inquire who killed the
Black Eagle, Red Horse, Big Mountain,
Great Buffalo, and Black Feather. They
will tell you. The Long Death"
But for the presence of four or five chiefs
| should have been done for on the spot, so
excited were the young men, By this time
Sewell had regained his senses, and was sob
bing and waiting again, and they went back
to theirsport.
A warrior approached him with sharp
knife and dashed him in 80 different places,
each cut being deep enough to be painful,
but nC5le of them very serious The gush
of blood soon turned the man into horri-
ble-looking object, and several times he
would nave tainted had they not had water
at hand to throw over him. He had
screamed so loud and long that his voice
was now entirely gone, and the only sound
he could utter was a groan. He had long
seemed unconscious of my presence, and L
was glad of this. do not think he was in
his full senses after the burning. After the
warrior had cut and slashed with his knife
he fell back to give place to another. This
second one meant TO do finer work. He
meant, as first move, to cut the victims
tongue out, but as he reached for it with his
left hand Sewell snapped at him like dog,
got the black hand firmly between his
laws, and then there was a grand uprOar.
Everybody enjoyed the fix the Indian was
in. and whenever he motioned as il he
meant to use his knife they shouted to him
to give the victim fair play. Sewell held to
him for fully five minutes; decorating the
hand like a bulldog, and then three or four
warriors seized him and made him let go.
The bitten warrior relinquished the knife
TO another, and during the next quarter OF
an hour Sewell suffered the loss of his nose,
ears. fingers and lips He shrieked out i'll
agony when his nose was slashed off, hut
after that he never even groaned, and con-
soled myself with the hope that he was dead.
The Indians finally became satisfied that
they could get no more 'fun" out of him,
and he was scalped, and the faggots at his
feet were lighted to consume the body.
NV time had come. There was grand
yell from every warrior as the two guards
led me TO the stake. How did itfecll Well,
was reczlessly desperate. l hated TO go
without having revenge on some OF them,
and. as there was no other way, / gave
them tongue lashing. called them wom-
n 3